China’s AI acumen, vision to be showcased at WAIC in Shanghai amid fierce race with US
High-level meeting on AI governance to be held in tandem with the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference, starting on July 26

The annual three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which starts on July 26, would showcase more than 3,000 hi-tech products, 40 large language models, 50 AI-powered devices and 60 intelligent robots, according to the organisers. Most of the displayed AI solutions and products were developed by Chinese institutions and businesses, they added.
The gathering this year would attract 800 enterprises, including Siemens and Schneider, according to the briefing, though organisers have not yet released a detailed list of participants and speakers.
In past years, the speaker list included Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Tencent Holdings’ chairman Pony Ma Huateng and Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who attended in person in 2019 and delivered video speeches in 2020 and 2023. Premier Li Qiang attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech in 2024.